June 2025

June 2025 Libken has just celebrated its 10th anniversary with a lot of old and new friends, the baptism of a lot of new fruit trees for the garden, a concert that happened exactly the same way as now also ten years ago and a performative lecture by Anne Kulbatski, which I have accompanied with a harmonium. /// Research trip in Stuttgart! Together with Judith Milz and Cécile Kobel, I have been invited to this year’s festival CURRENT – Kunst und Urbaner Raum. Next to eight flags, moved by the – allegedly highly polluted – air in Stuttgart, our work ~4E8A∞~ consists of four performances tied together by the phenomenon of breath. These days, we have visited the premises of Abfallwirtschaft Stuttgart, where the street cleaning cars and machines are repaired, washed and sleep when they don’t work. We were in Café Weiß, a smokers’ bar with long tradition, in the beautifully sunshine-lit Versöhnungskirche church in Stuttgart Degerloch, as well as in the so-called Hustenburg, a housing complex originally built for people with tuberculosis. Whoever is curious to know more about what will happen there between June 27th and July 26th, check the programme and see you there! ///

May 2025

May 2025 Tired and happy! We’ve just finished the third show of Outside Inside, a choreographic master piece (graduation work) by Tim Winter with dancers Aya Toraiwa and Crispin Lord, and musicians Edith Steyer and Wieland Möller. So much magic in and outside of the house! It was lovely to perform with the doves, the audience and the technology alike! Photo: Lea Greub ///

April 2025

April 2025 Save the date: I’m performing for my two composer friends Evelyn Saylor and Dina Maccabee! On April, 4th, we sing at KM28 in Karl-Marx-Straße 28, 12043 Berlin and on May 3rd in Libken, accompanied by a workshop on the next day. If Only Patterns Make Us gathers pieces for two, a capella and accompanied voices, as well as for a mixed vocal ensemble. The new works of Evelyn and Dina reflect their multi-faceted engagement across contemporary and folk singing practices. ///

March 2025

March 2025 It’s been almost one month of into the fields, a residency programme at Libken Denk- und Produktionsort that I am currently hosting and accompanying together with Anna Bartholdy and Judith Milz. Thanks to the Goethe Culture Moves Europe funding, we could invite seven artists from Poland, Czech Republic and Germany to spend two months together, developing old and new interdisciplinary practices together and exchanging over the conditions of art making in rural areas. I’ve already learned so much with and by Markéta Fagan, Jitka Králová, Belia Brückner, Sophie Innmann, Gabriela Piwar, Lenka Holíková, and Katarzyna Łyszkowska aka Łyszka and I’m looking forward to another month together!   Photos: Sophie Innmann, Johanna Ackva /// Just back from my residency at 4fT – Tanzplattform Leipzig, where I could spend two weeks of work, exchange and research with Pernille Sonne and with her assistant dog Thaja. Besides a lot of fun, this time was also a deep learning experience for me on many, many levels. It was the first time I have been able to experience from so close by what it means to navigate through everyday life as a Blind person, to work, to communicate, to use public transport, to study, to dance, to discover a new place, to survive in the motorized traffic, to buy something, to do so many more things  – without being able to use your eyes, those sense organs for which most of our infrastructure is designed.  I’ve enjoyed this time a lot: playing with tuning voices, moving informed by sensory perception of ears, nose and skin, describing inner images, dream visions and other phenomena beyond sight. Pernille and I both would love to continue this collaboration and to develop the materials presented in the frame of a first public sharing in Leipzig. If you are interested or know of opportunities, I’m grateful for any hints! ///

February 2025

February 2025 Merci beaucoup aux ami.e.x de l’amicale mille feux! Thank you so much, sweet team of amicable mille feux! Together with Philipp Enders, we were hosted by this wonderful project in Lacelle, in the French region of Plateau de Millevaches in order to continue working on Zweitlandschaften, a project between amateur-singing and choreography. Besides a showing at amicable mille feux, to our own surprise, we ended our residency with a full album! The EP Singalongs contains five compositions for five to eight voices and explores ways to transpose the surrealist writing method Exquisite corpse (cadavre exquis) to music composition. The songs were made by following a protocol of singing along with an existing piece of music first, then layering and arranging the thereby created voices. Singalongs can be listened to here. /// Moreover, I can announce another residency, this time in Germany at 4fT – Tanzplattform Leipzig. Thanks to their generous invitation, I will have the opportunity to work there together with Leipzig-based artist Pernille Sonne, actress, author and dramaturge for integrated audio description. In our research clairvoyants, we will explore the figure of the so-called clairvoyant seer, a figure historically mostly referred to as a woman, sometimes as a Blind person. Join us for an informal sharing on March 14th, 5pm in the studio of Tanzplattform Leipzig, Erich-Zeigner-Allee! ///

January 2025

January 2025 Some days ago, I saw a truly impressive, uplifting and energizing dance performance. And I had the honour to write about it. I’m happy to share my impressions on “We Are (Nothing) Everything” by Anya Cloud and Makisig Akin, aka The Love Makers Company on the platform www.tanzschreiber.com, where I regularly publish reviews on dance and performance. The article was originally written in German and translated to English by Melissa Maldonando. ///

November 2024

November 2024   tiny ruins*. performance with Forough Fami @ St.-Pauls-Kirche Wedding, November 15th 2024, 7 pm / free entrance, no registration needed After its destruction in World War II, St.-Pauls-Kirche was renovated from 1952 to 1957. While the exterior of the antique-inspired church, designed by Karl-Friedrich-Schinkel, was restored to its original state, the decision was made to remove the classical pillars and plaster ornaments from the interior. Today, the tiny ruins which remain of these decorations sit in a corner, quietly collecting dust. Besides that, speaking of tiny ruins also relates to human beings going through moments of crisis: lost loves, broken ties, shattered hopes, … We, too, break, over and over again, become “tiny ruins”. Tiny in comparison to the whole of this city, this country, this planet, and beyond. Our wounds and losses do not matter so much in the bigger picture, despite how tragic they feel to us. Just as ruins open a space to rebuild, our personal falls make room for renewal, for the change we may not even know we need. *tiny ruins is the name of a band. and we don’t want to steal it. just borrow it for one night. ///  

October 2024

October 2024 Since 2021, I am part of Denk- und Produktionsort Libken, a residency for artists, researchers and activists in Böckenberg (Uckermark). For a while now, we have been organizing the place and curating the cultural program consisting of a.o. exhibitions, workshops, and residency programs as a small team of four people. This year, a funding by Fonds Darstellende Künste and Bundesnetzwerk flausen+ gave me the opportunity to invite and accompany two performing artists, Christian Limber and Victoria Schulz, who are both interested in rural working class identity during and after the GDR. Another weekend of this year’s Libken season that will stay in my mind, combined an inspiring workshop on embodying and understanding dreams (with choreographer Anna Nowicka) and an evening of discussion about current right wing tendencies in the region around Libken (organized by Anna Bartholdy and others). It was great to see so many people who politically fight against the racist, sexist and ableist voices that are getting louder! Last weekend, we celebrated the season and its end with FOOD & SHELTER. In collaboration with ACRE studios, Berlin, the artist Jonas Klock set up his mobile shelter on the field that begins right at the edge of our grounds and Cécile Kobel cooked a delicious bean-based meal for the guests of the inauguration. Photo: Jonas Klock /// Save the date! On the 15th of November, Forough Fami and I will perform at St. Paul Kirche in Wedding. This will be our first collaboration and a work that we develop in dialogue with the spacial givens of the renovated Schinkel building. The performance is part of the church’s open doors weekend under the headline PLAYGROUND_Wandel. I’m excited to play with Forough! ///

September 2024

September 2024 Past Saturday, we brought the participatory performance Zu Tisch, into the garden around the famous Mäusebunker, a former research laboratory in the south of Berlin that looks like a mix between a spaceship, a tank and a pyramid. Thank you to Urbane Praxis for inviting us and to everyone who took part in the experimental dialogue format around the topic of urban co-habition and wellbeing!      ///

August 2024

August 2024 I’m leaving Vienna after five intensive weeks of classes, workshops, performances, artistic exchange, sweaty dance floors, laughter and love. I’m bringing back with me so many great memories, insights and inspirations that will continue to unravel. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to meet some amazing dancers, artists and teachers from a generation that has shaped the field of performance before I was even born. Amongst them, I would like to mention especially Ishmael Houston-Jones, Sara Shelton Mann and Glenna Batson. Thank you so much for passing on your wisdoms and tricks, developed over many years of work! It was a great gift to be mentored by Isabel Lewis, who is a master of listening and trusting the senses, including the sense of pleasure. And I’m happy to have 50 new friends and colleagues to be in conversation with all over the world! The pictures below were taken in a workshop with Isabel Lewis and in one with the wonderful Zagreb-based artist Sonja Pregrad. /// One more note on my Impulstanz summer: Deva Schubert’s Glitch Choir, in which I have performed mid July was chosen as a winner of the 8:TENSION price that is given each year to one of the young and upcoming choreographers presenting their work in the frame of the festival. I’m proud of my friend and happy that I was part of this beautiful project! ///